Getting Wiser: Evan Bloom and Leo Beckerman on forming a brand identity and working together

About a year ago, Inside Scoop embarked on a little mini-series of sorts named “Getting Wise” wherein we shadowed the Wise Sons duo of Evan Bloom and Leo Beckerman as they opened their first restaurant. During the four-part series, we shared the trials and tribulations of two first-time restaurateurs as they figured out to open a Jewish deli in the Mission.

This month, Wise Sons will open its second restaurant, a sandwich shop within the Contemporary Jewish Museum. So, we figured it made sense to spin off a sequel. And of course, we are oh-so-cleverly calling it “Getting Wiser.”

Earlier this week, we discussed the lessons from the first time around. Today, we tackle future plans, the Wise Sons “brand” and what it’s like working with your best friend.

***

Soon, Evan Bloom and Leo Beckerman will have two restaurants and a commissary kitchen. Their ultimate goals, however, are more ambitious. Chief among them is a retail line.

“You walk into the supermarket today and you go to the kosher Jewish aisle and it’s Manischewitz and all these brands that are 100 years old,” says Bloom. [Ed. note: Manischewitz, founded in 1888, is actually 125 years old.]

“But you know, a lot of our generation doesn’t keep kosher anymore. They don’t care as much about that. The same people who are eating at our restaurant who want this cultural experience. To us, it’s not only a that, but also an ethnic food. Providing a product that is culturally Jewish, but it’s also delicious and crosses barriers.”

Beckerman chimes in:

“The brand, ultimately — I don’t think it’s there yet — is that we want to be the delicious Jewish product. It’s obviously not just about the food. There’s a cultural aspect. Culture is a big, big part.”

Having a restaurant in the biggest Jewish museum in the Bay Area will give them a foothold onto that cultural track. The shelves of the new restaurant will be full of retail products, both homemade (and carrying the Wise Sons logo) and local products from places like Nana Joes Granola. In addition to the growing lines of breads (challah, corn rye, chocolate babka, etc.), there will also be Wise Sons products like glass jars of borscht, cans of matzo meal, different kinds of noodles and grains — basically the kind of stuff you might find an old school deli … or maybe one day, in that Jewish food aisle at the supermarket.

But as much as the guys enjoy designing logos and are ramping up production in their new commissary kitchen, at the end of the day, they know that to many of their customers, they themselves are the brand. There’s even an old man who will only buy bread if Beckerman sells it to him.

Bloom and Beckerman were friends before starting the pop-ups that would lead to Wise Sons, and they’ve managed to keep up the friendship while being business partners. It helps that they each naturally fall into certain roles: Bloom handles the kitchen, food costs, graphic design and marketing while Beckerman does baking, catering, the books, and the front-of-house.

“We’re together seven days a week for most of the day. Sure, we might bicker or maybe we both have a bad morning when we can just tell neither of us is happy to be around the other one. Maybe we stay silent for a half hour and do our work and ultimately we just get through it and keep working. Lucky for us we still have a really good relationship,” says Bloom. “We both have girlfriends, which I think is really good because we have other distractions. And we still make sure to do something socially every couple weeks together. Because it’s important to keep things balanced and realize that you enjoy the other person’s company, and you’re not just partners in business.”

They still probably over-think decisions, Beckerman admits. The majority of their business-related arguments are about bigger picture stuff; they’ve gotten to a point where the day-to-day dilemmas get solved relatively quickly.

“Two heads are better than one,” Bloom says.

“And two Jews means three opinions. That principle is definitely true, too.”

· Getting Wiser, Part One: Evan Bloom and Leo Beckerman of Wise Sons on their second restaurant, and lessons from the first time around [Inside Scoop]· Previously: Wise Sons Deli plotting a new outpost in the Contemporary Jewish Museum [Inside Scoop]